New Junior School Class Loses Teaching Assistant

My daughter has just begun Junior School, and she is happy and excited in her lovely new uniform.  On Friday us parents were invited to a meet the teacher session which was overall very positive.  Unfortunately we also found out that my daughters class has absolutely no teaching assistant support at all.  Last term we were told that due to cuts we were only to have a TA once or twice a week.  Now nothing.  The other classes in her year are more in need.

The teacher asked if anyone would like to volunteer to read with children, or help them with handwriting, or show them an interesting new skill etc.  I am the class representative, and I am asking the other parents if there is anything they can do to help.  Which feels positive and supportive.

At the same time I am angry and upset because I think our children will now be in a class which has to be very tightly controlled, the emphasis will have to be on rules, boundaries and discipline because how else can one teacher manage thirty 7 – 8 year olds?

My daughter was 6 two weeks ago.  She is one of the youngest in her class and school exhausts her.  She is clever and sociable and so she is coping well, but I worry that she is showing signs of stress.  She’s only seven!  She is angry and withdrawn some afternoons after school.

I think this is a good opportunity for schools and parents to bond, and to show mutual support.  I really love our schools, I don’t want to feel angry like this.  I hope I can do something to help.

Our school can’t afford swimming lessons

A few years ago the school community did an amazing thing.  They raised enough money to fix the little swimming pool and provide weekly lessons for the children.

Sadly, that pool closed last year because there isn’t enough money to fix it.  The local public swimming pools are full, so our kids can’t go there.

The school can’t afford to bus the kids out to the pools that do have capacity.

We are talking about what to do about this, because some children can’t swim, and they are not having access to a pool outside of school to learn.

TA support is being cut due to cuts.

My daughter is just finishing Infant school and has been brilliantly supported by a fantastic team of teachers and teaching assistants. The children in her class with SEN have had a fantastic designated TA and the class has had one for the mornings. My son is about to start the same school and while he will have a teacher and assistant in reception, due to cuts in Yr 1 and 2 they are now moving to have 2 assistants over 3 classes. I worry about the impact this will have on the support children get. I also worry that the previously well resourced nurture groups and extra support groups that my daughter and her friends have benefited from will no longer be funded. I know that one of the specialist reading support TAs who previously worked with children in small groups, will now be in reception as that is where full time roles are. This seems a waste of her training and a loss to children who need help.

No money for basic communication

Parents at our school had been very happy at the recently introduced text alert system. It was a neat way of receiving messages from school, directly from the teacher or about events happening at school. Great! No more problems such as missing crucial information because your 4/5/6 year old had somehow lost the letter. Information flowed quickly and directly. It was more inclusive than using email or facebook, as most people have a mobile phone on them most of the time, but not everyone uses social media or email all the time.

Fast forward six months later and the school discovered that the texting system is not something they can afford. Text information flow has stopped immediately, and we are back to the ‘dark ages’ of letters and posters. Oh and did I tell you that at the same school use of paper, pens or the photocopier have been rationed for a while now? What kind of world do we live in? This is preposterous.

Well

Stressed at School

For half an afternoon a week, I used to volunteer at daughter’s infant school. Whilst, I know that my daughter’s infant school is/was an “outstanding school” with dedicated, brilliant, hard-working teachers, I was nonetheless shocked to enter the classrooms and see how chaotic a room of 30 five-year olds was. Spending time, week after week in the classroom, I came to the realisation that there were simply too many children in that classroom. Thirty, five-year-old children in one classroom struggled to sit still for the time enough time required for the teacher to talk. Teaching was regularly interrupted, understandably by children needing water, the toilet or simply wanting to share their thoughts about the subject being discussed.  Many of the children seemed bored by the lengthy times spent having to sit on the carpet or at their desk, being talked at and their attention clearly waivered. With such large classrooms the learning seemed often to occur by rote with little time for questions or exploration of the subject.  It seemed to me the ‘real learning’ for most of the children occurred when teaching support staff, who took small groups out of the classroom in groups of 4 and 5 to concentrate on a specific area usually reading or maths. I myself, helped children with their reading and maths in small groups of up four which worked well. The environment was intense, noisy and physically cramped and I often came home feeling slightly overwhelmed, thinking it was a miracle, that the children learnt anything.

I was therefore horrified to hear that in my daughters very well-respected junior school, the class size would now be 32 in an even smaller classroom. When I investigated further, I found that class sizes of 32 are standard across the city. As parents we have come to accept this as a norm but from my experience, it is clear to me that this it is not a healthy environment for children or their learning or for the teachers.

 My daughter is now 8 and (like many I’m sure) she continues to be a very lively, boisterous thing. At home she never stops moving and/or singing. She ‘gets’ what needs to happen at school so complies, but when I pick her up from school, I can see that it has been a struggle to sit still, to hold it together, to stop talking, to concentrate and to try and learn. Being at school for her clearly requires lots of effort and it means when we get home she can often be quite emotional with lots of mixed up feelings. I can see she finds school stressful and I am certain it doesn’t have to be this way.

 I consider our family lucky. Her teachers are brilliant, the school is one of the best locally and very highly regarded. I still have lots of contact with the school and I can see everyone at school she encounters tries their hardest to to do their best by her. However, there is no getting away from the fact, I feel that her class is too big with too many children with different, competing and at times complex needs.  The fact that 2/3 of schools locally have had to reduce school support staff really worries me. I know that, it is these staff that have historically supported teachers to ensure learning can happen for all the children. The fact that my daughter learns anything is a testament to the hard work of her teachers and the support staff. If our school were to lose any more support staff, I am certain my daughter’s learning would grind to a complete halt.

Finally, I wish school could be more of a joyous experience for my daughter. I wish it could be an experience filled with a sense of wonder, pleasure and discovery, rather than an experience she simply must endure. It makes me sad for her and for the children of her time and I worry that collectively as parents we are allowing the government of the day to fail them.

Begging for school supplies

All schools have mufti days. But at our school, instead asking for a small donation of £1 or so for a charity, mufti days for the last couple of years have been a bit different.

Once a term, children get to wear their own clothes to school in exchange for a donation of stationery supplies for the school office. They tell us in advance what they need, and everyone is supposed to get the same thing. Highlighter pens. Glue sticks. Last time, the ask was for a ream of paper each.

Imagine several hundred small children waddling into school, each struggling to carry a ream of paper bought by parents. And then an old trestle table by the front gate, creaking under the weight of dozens of packets of paper.

EHCP MADNESS!

My youngest boy was diagnosed with Autism in Feb of this year.  He is average in attainment but struggles massively with understanding social situations and regulating behaviour and emotions appropriately.  This creates a massive barrier to learning for him and puts him at a significant disadvantage to his peers.  Since his diagnosis, I have been fighting to get him an EHCP so he can get the extra help he needs to be successful and happy at school.  It’s been an absolute nightmare and the result is that I am now going to tribunal to get my son the support he needs.  School and the LA have not been able to support me whatsoever because of these cuts and it’s just disgusting.  My little boy deserves an equal opportunity to an education just like any other neuro typical child – he is a bright special boy and could just be an AMAZING adult, just like so many autistic people.  We are currently putting further and unnecessary obstacles in his path due to the austerity that this government is inflicting on our society’s most vulnerable people.  I refuse to sit back and watch my little boy’s mental health and well being, as well as his future, deplete in this way.  I will NOT have it and will NOT rest until my boy is supported appropriately….quite possibly at the risk of my own sanity as the stress of this fight is just so overwhelming for parents, carers and all the families of SEN children.  It’s not right, just or acceptable and this current government should be ashamed of this disgraceful, discriminatory behaviour.

Reliance on parental contributions – but it’s not enough!

Commencing school year 2017/18 the school introduced a “voluntary donations” option for parents to make contributions as a direct consequence of budget cuts. At the same time they introduced a mandatory “school fund” payment of £25 for all parents (payable in one lump sum for whole school year or termly) for the same reason (offsite trips are charged in addition). Recently the swimming pool has been closed and swimming lessons ceased due to the repair, maintenance and on-going costs being prohibitive to on-going use (despite parental contributions to lessons). School trips have come close to being cancelled as they are no longer viable unless all parents contribute. Parents via the PTA have taken responsibility for maintaining and improving the playground (resources, planting, painting etc).

Science GCSE students being failed

My daughter and her science class, which are due to take the 3 GCSE individual sciences have been let down by not having a consistent science teacher for the last 2 years. The teacher was ill but the achool did not provide a qualified science teacher to replace her so science was not taught. They now have a new teacher, once the previous teacher left but htis new teacher has only 2 terms to cover 3 science GCSE curriculums. The ‘struggle’ that the children and the teacher have are shown in their PPE results, where although the students were targeted to get 7/8 grades, most got 4/5 grades. These students worked hard to be chosen to take the 3 GCSEs in year 9 and many want to continue with science in the future. The new teacher came in to teaching from a scientific career as she wants to get more people, specifically women into science and she has been giving alot of extra time to the students.

The rumour is that the school could not afford to replace the teacher while the previous teacher was signed off ill.

The teacher has also commented that the text books are not complete for the science curriculums.

Cuts, cuts and more cuts

Swimming pool has been closed as on-going and repair costs prohibitive, despite parental contributions.

Trips close to being cancelled as can only go ahead if all parents contribute, previously contributions were voluntary, now compulsory. Additional voluntary donations accepted.

Governors asked school to undertake staffing review, many staff voluntarily resigned, retired or taking redundancy. Reorganisation and reduction of remaining staff.

Staff leaving and not being replaced.

Higher Level Teaching Assistants (HLTAs) covering teacher planning time and sickness absence, avoiding use of supply teachers where possible

Planned purchases for resources have been cancelled, PTA asked to fund if possible.

Caretakers had cleaning added to their duties.

If key stage 1 (KS1) teaching assistants (TA) absent no cover provided.

Printing and photocopying budgets restricted.

Resources in classrooms running low, e.g. glue sticks, pencils, whiteboard markers, pens….limited resources in the playground (lots of what’s being used looking shabby).

PTA paying for fun learning events for children that the school can no longer afford – pirate day, street dance day, zoo lab, Christmas party entertainers and many classroom games, books, toys and resources.